Karen Taisen
Karen Taisen (大戦 可憐 Taisen Karen lit. Beautiful Great Battler) is a regular human who, like a select range of mankind, was fused with the Phoenix Yōkai, and thus, contracted the Firebird Symbiote. She is known by the moniker Golden Phoenix ('' 金鳳凰 Kinhōō''), due to her flame abilities and the yōkai she merged with, as well as her golden hair. Appearance Karen bears the appearance of a youthful woman, with a relatively curved figure, average height and a slightly childish face. She has long, wavy blond hair which goes down to her waist, and deep purple eyes. She commonly wears a brown jacket that goes to her abdomen over a yellow crop-top, revealing some cleavage, a pair of black short-shorts, with a brown belt that has a few tassels matching the color of her jacket, and a pair of orange stockings, sneakers and a scarf to finish it off. Personality Karen's main personality trait can be described easily in a single word: feisty. Due to how unique her situation is; a human having bonded with the parasitic alien within her body, thus classifying it as a symbiote, she is always full of energy and a zest for life, not forgetting how she could have been easily erased. This trait is what defines almost her entire personality, as it determines how she interacts with everyone. Karen loves to meet new people, her bombastic attitude makes her very social, and as such, very loud, excitedly rushing to meet new people, as Kisara's group quickly found out, and she is more than eager to try and weave her way into a group of friends, wanting to belong to a group and get close to people. Her social behaviour is a bit odd; having grown up with her hyperactive, go-getting attitude, Karen is a very friendly individual, though "overly-friendly" would be a more accurate term. She lacks the concept of "personal space", and is more than happy to rub up against anybody. She is also a bit of a flirt, first shown with her interactions with Mina, whom she seemed rather taken with, referring to her as "sweetie", much to Marin's chagrin. Her sexual preferences seem to extend to males and females. Karen is also very proud of her appearance, which is the common conception of beauty, tall, blonde hair, large breasts, and she isn't above using it to her advantage, dressing in a way that reveals her breasts, stomach, and legs. Karen's feisty attitude even extends to how she battles. In short, Karen loves to fight, and states that this is why she considers the symbiote to be the best thing that's happened to her, as it allows her to fight to her heart's content. In battle, she loves to be brutal, her fighting style is coarse and unpolished, but she takes full advantage of her physical power and weaponry and is not above killing someone if the situation calls for it, or if they're simply a nuisance that needs to be removed. A threat to her friends, however, is where her true aggression lies; when the lives of Kisara's group were threatened, despite having only known them for a few days, already considered them close enough friends to threaten to kill the aggressor within seconds. Despite the aggressive streak, Karen is, for what it is worth, a kind girl. While her upbeat and plucky attitude shines through the most, what she wants more than anything is friends, and when it comes to people she cares about, Karen is willing to go to great lengths for them, and would, quite literally, give up organs to save her friends. History Plot Human's True Potential Arc *Midday Gathering Equipment Raging Bullet (レイジングブリット, Reijinguburitto): Raging Bullet, a pair of gauntlets, are Karen's main weapon. They appear as bracelets at first, but when activated, they cover Karen's hands and forearm as gauntlets. The gauntlets have a golden color and the shells wrapped around it are red and orange. Each magazine consists of 12 shells, making it 24 in total when both gauntlets are fully loaded. Raging Bullet both act as single barrel shotguns. They appear to use either incendiary or explosive rounds, as they generate a sort of flame effect after being fired, often blasting enemies far backward. They are tremendously powerful, as a single punch from Karen's knocked an entire floor outwards in a wave-like movement, knocking multiple foes off their feet with ease. She can also use the momentum from the shots to propel herself in battle. Powers & Abilities Physical Abilities Ways of Combat Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant: A deadly hand-to-hand combatant, Karen uses various kicks and punches along with a few throws. If anything, her fighting style is a form of Kickboxing given her footwork; mixed with MMA, using striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, as well as wrestling. Along with this, she has almost superhuman strength even without the Phoenix Force, sending an unfortunate mook flying several feet away, and breaking through a iron structure due to the impact of Karen's punch, to her causing a ripple in the ground which subsequently knocked the surrounding opponents off their feet. To assist her hand-to-hand skills is her gauntlets; which have barrels implanted inside that use bullets, and, when triggered, cause flames to erupt from the gauntlets to deal more damage. Her punches can shoot explosive rounds (due to the gauntlets) towards enemies at a distance, or create explosions in her foes' faces. *'Cutting Shear' (カッティングシア, Kattingu Shia): A simple technique, where Karen infuses flames within her fist and condenses them to their limits, to the point that they are almost invisible, before unleashing a highly powerful jumping uppercut where she spins and rockets upwards with some horizontal movement as well. This initial strike has Karen spinning around as she delivers the uppercut; which works similar to a vacuum; if the foe is caught by the initial blow; then they will be struck the successive eight times. It is one of Karen's most powerful blows; mostly because of it's "multi-hit" feature which doubles the damage each successive spin. Despite its basicness, Karen prefers to use the Cutting Shears to finish opponents, as it is a stylish and graceful way to win the battles, and has different powerful variants as a result. Cutting Shear also covers a lot of horizontal distance, allowing her to strike an airborne opponent from several meters away. This does, however, give the attack a good amount of lag, leaving her open for counter-attack if she misses or is blocked. **'Snaphance Fist' (スナップハンスフィスト, Sunappuhansu Fisuto): Karen spins and rockets upwards with some horizontal movement with an exceedingly powerful uppercut that creates a spiraling vacuum of flames, creating a vacuum effect which sucks in the opponent and strikes multiple times. Then, she transitions into three more kicks aimed at the legs, chest and head. She then throws another kick to the chest before landing a jumping kick to foul the opponent's balance, and finishes the attack by turning and throwing an uppercut that transitions into another spiral of flames, creating another vacuum effect which sucks in the opponent and strikes multiple times before she finishes off with a powerful Cutting Shear to the opponent's midsection. Physical Attributes Great Strength: Karen is known to be deceptively powerful, despite her light-weight and waifish build as numerous other characters positively dwarf her in stature. Her physical strength is at the very peak of human potential. As a result, she is as physically strong as a human being can be; all this without tapping into the Phoenix Force. Karen can snap steel handcuffs and chains, and is capable of breaking through wooden walls and steel doors with a single kick. Enhanced Speed: Karen can run at speeds of up to approximately 48 kilometers per hour (30 miles per hour) or higher, and has on occasion run a mile when under duress mile (1.6 km) in 73 seconds (49 mph/78 kph).). Her agility is greater than that of an Olympic gold medalist. She can coordinate her body with balance, flexibility, and dexterity. She also has the ability to leap 50 yards out in a single bound and 20 feet into the air without a running start. Her reaction speed is 20 kph, which makes it possible for her to dodge gunfire even in point blank range from multiple gunners at the same time. Enhanced Durability: Karen's bones and muscles are denser and harder than normal, to the highest human potential, which makes her very durable compared to a normal human. She is durable enough to the point that if a person beats her with a thick wooden stick, the stick would eventually break and Karen would show little discomfort. This level of durability is how she survived things such as falls from several stories like when she landed on a car from 200 feet with no discomfort. Natural Abilities Pyrokinesis Pyrokinesis (発火能力 (パイロキネシス), Pairokineshisu, Japanese for "Ignition Power", English for "Pyrokinesis"): Pyrokinesis is the name of the ability that allows Karen to control and manipulate the kinetic energy of energy particles to generate, control or absorb fire. This is induced by Karen raising the motion of a target's energy particles through telekinesis in order to ignite it. She can excite or speed up an object's energy particles, increasing their thermal energy until they ignite, not necessarily objects, but also air particles. She can control and move the flames, including the shape, heat and even colour. Fire is the element of power, consisting of overpowering force tempered by the unflinching will to accomplish tasks and desires. Karen's pyrokinesis draws its power from the sun, and its effectiveness is drastically increased on a particularly hot day. The cells of a normal human body convert energy from foodstuffs into a form of energy usable by the body, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Among other changes, the Phoenix Force triggered a specific genetic code rearrangement that caused Karen's ATP production sites to generate a new form of energy containing molecule. This complex molecule not only provides ordinary bodily energy but contains large stores of latent chemical-bonding energies; giving her overwhelming fire manipulation powers. Karen can generate shapes composed of fire from any point on her body; she usually employs her hands to "sculpt" the flames, occasionally as a lasso to ensnare enemies. She can form fire into long streams, spheres, or even more complex shapes like letters in skywriting. These flames-objects will only remain their shapes as long as he concentrates upon them. The objects will only burn about 3 minutes before expiring unless Karen continues to infuse them with energy. The temperature of these fiery projections is generally around 2,800 F, near the melting point of iron. *'Flint Shooter' (フリントシューター, Furinto Shūtā): When performing Flint Shooter, Karen's willpower is utilized to focus energy into and through the palms. As the palms are thrust outwards towards the target, a surging wave of flame is expelled that results in a punching force traveling through the air in the opponent's direction; manifested in the form of a giant fireball that inflicts massive damage. Karen will usually be immobilized for a short time after performing this move, leaving her vulnerable to counterattack. If thrown at the opponent, they will have to defend, jump or use a special attack to counter. In any case, they will have to act, allowing Karen to potentially counter. It will "fizzle" out after a certain range, but if charged to the maximum, it can hit twice, and will continue to fly without fading. Flint Shooter is multi-hitting, the maximum usually being 5 hits, and it has a property that lets it break through any projectile, which usually catches foes by surprise, as well as blow reinforced, solid titanium walls without effort, making it one of Karen's most powerful techniques. **'Rage Aggressor' (レイジアグレッサー, Reiji Aguressā): Rage Aggressor is a type of Flint Shooter more powerful and advanced in comparison to the regular version, energized by the Phoenix Force. It is activated by Karen launching a powerful two-streamed blast of flames, which hits many times. It expands vertically as it moves away from Karen. As the blast moves away from her, opponents that come in contact with the vortex are knocked slightly to the side, and are thus forced to travel with it. Opponents that are in the center of the vortex are more easily trapped by it. Karen recoils slightly when she does the attack, but she is unaffected by gravity until the move ends, so it is mostly insignificant. The move is capable of hitting about 7.5 times a second, although this is unlikely due to the speed the blasts spin at and the knockback delivered. Despite being a powerful attack, it has one major flaw: if the opponents are far away from Karen, they can avoid the attack by jumping over it. However, it makes it up by inflicting damage on a wide range of multiple enemies and pushing them back quite some distance without allowing recovery, possibly even dragging opponents off the side. Not only is it five times as powerful, its energy is capable of withering the skin, muscle and tissue of any being of pure evil to a quivering mess. Not only was a Togabito's body battered and broken after being hit by it, but it caused him intense muscle spasms, and even the place on their arm where Karen grabbed with her hand right before firing it was badly burned. *'Flaming' (フレイミング, Furemin): A unique method of teleportation where, Karen compresses flames on her body, and quickly spreads them out to the ends of each of her limbs. Suddenly, Karen releases the flames, creating a sonic burst which propels and warps her into the location that she wishes. Flaming is an easy technique to use once it is learned, which, can actually be quite difficult. It allows Karen to transport to any direction that she wishes, as long as that area they move to is not a hindrance to fire. The sheer force of her acceleration also causes her flames to surge violently, which effectively coats her in her own power for the duration of the subsequent movement. As a result the motion is quite destructive, completely at odds with its name and since she can move to anything she made contact with, she can literally appear to be in several places at once. Phoenix Force Phoenix Force (鳳力 Hōryoku): Upon birth, Karen was found to have contracted with a supernatural symbiote when in her mother's womb; which is revealed to be the soul of a Phoenix Yōkai. The symbiote has augmented all of Karen's physical abilities to superhuman levels equal to, and in some cases greater than, a Saiyan's. The symbiote can mimic any type of clothing whatsoever, as well as blending Karen in her surroundings, rendering her invisible. The symbiote is lodged within her heart; serving as a second set of organs and bones, in the case that Karen herself is critically wounded; frequently reforging her bones. It is permanently bonded to her—and only through sound-based attacks, can the fusion between Karen and the Phoenix Force be temporarily broken. The Phoenix Force gives Karen increased physical attributes and the rare ability of flight, as well as the possibility of launching aerial attacks. She can transform her hands and feet into phoenix talons, with which she can slash her enemies. When exerting the full power of the Phoenix Force, Karen becomes wreathed in flames which extend to her hair and her eyes turn red; this form is triggered by strong emotions, and when utilizing it, her entire hair glows white. In this state, her pyrokinesis ability is enhanced sevenfold, as is her natural abilities. *'Overwhelming Strength': Even without harnessing the Phoenix Force, Karen had conditioned herself to lift (press) 250 lbs (113 kilos). Karen's physical strength is sufficient enough to enable her to lift and throw objects as heavy as a big rig semi-truck with ease. She must also pull his punches and kicks unless fighting someone of similar or greater physical durability. Otherwise, her blows would prove fatal to a normal human being. She has demonstrated that she is strong enough to enable her to knock out people with normal durability with as little as a tap to the head. Karen's physical strength also extends into her legs, enabling her to be able to jump to a height of several stories in a single bound. This is caused by the several mutations that the symbiote took with Karen, gaining additional strength over long periods of time with its host. *'Immense Durability': When harnessing the Phoenix Force, Karen's body is highly resistant to physical injury, capable of withstanding assault from high-caliber bullets as well as attacks from super powered individuals. When distributed at a typical thickness over Karen's body, the symbiote is capable of absorbing bullets from small-arms weapons firing conventional ammunition. The symbiote is however particularly vulnerable to sonic-based attacks. Karen can withstand impacts, such as falling from several stories, being repeatedly struck with superhuman force or by several powerful energy blasts, that would severely injure or kill a normal human with little to no injury herself. **'Incredible Stamina': Karen's augmented musculature which came about due to the Phoenix Force is much more efficient than that of a normal human being. As a result, her muscles produce lesser amounts of fatigue toxins during physical activity than do those of ordinary humans. She can exert herself physically at peak capacity for at least several hours before the build up of fatigue toxins in her blood begins to impair her. Karen is also capable of surviving in harmful areas for long periods of time such as underwater or in toxic gases, the symbiote filtering breathable air to the host. *'Accelerated Healing Factor': As phoenixes are known for rising from the ashes, Karen possesses an accelerated healing process that enables her to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater efficiency than an ordinary human. She can regenerate greatly damaged or destroyed tissue with few seconds. She has been shown to fully heal from numerous gunshot wounds, severe burns covering most of her body, and regenerate missing eyes within a matter of seconds. Among the more extreme regenerations involves her having her skin, muscles, and internal organs incinerated from her skeleton only to fully regenerate the tissue within minutes. Additionally, the symbiote is capable of healing injuries in Karen at a faster rate than normal human healing allows. The symbiote is also capable of healing injuries and illnesses that current human medical care cannot such as cancer. *'Intense Speed': Because she is bonded with the symbiote, Karen is capable of running and moving at speeds that are far beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. Karen has showed to be fast enough to catch up to an accelerating car while on foot, but prefers to travel by flight in order to reach her destination easily. **'High Agility': Karen's agility, balance and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. Additionally, Karen's reflexes are similarly enhanced and are more efficient than those of an ordinary human by a factor of fifteen. Karen possesses the ability to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium in any position imaginable. She seems able to adjust her position by instinct, which enables her to balance herself on virtually any object, no matter how small or narrow. Trivia *Karen's theme is "Nagareboshi", from Megamaon Starforce 3.